


Better Off Without

by cosmicrecyclingbin



Series: Pirouette-Verse [11]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Angst, Daddy Issues, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28901865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicrecyclingbin/pseuds/cosmicrecyclingbin
Summary: Sometimes it's best to keep some people out of your life.
Relationships: Kurapika/Leorio Paladiknight
Series: Pirouette-Verse [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033383
Comments: 7
Kudos: 62





	Better Off Without

Kurapika and Leorio had been in their new apartment , enjoying their lives as a newly engaged couple, for merely a month now. 

They settled in easily, as they’d been pretty much full-on cohabitating for the past year _anyway_ , and rings had been bought. A date had been set.

The studio was gearing up for the beginning of the show season and Kurapika was as busy as ever, but he was always home right at midnight, having thrown away his awful habit of practicing until the wee hours of the morning so that he could lay next to Leorio as long as possible until they both had to be back at work.

Leorio’s clinic was prospering, having gotten a fantastic reputation since it’s opening. When he had days off, and Kurapika didn’t, he would often take the train out of the city to spend time with his future in-laws. He would go shopping with Kurapika’s mother, or sometimes help his father in the yard.

Sunday nights were the nights that all of their friends would congregate in the apartment of whosoever had agreed to host that week (usually Pakunoda, as she had the largest home) and they would all drink and laugh until inevitably half of them would pass out on the floor.

Things were going so smoothly, so _wonderfully,_ that Kurapika temporarily forgot what unhappiness was.

One hot summer day, a phone call from Gon interrupted their carefully sculpted peace.

  
  


Kurapika arrived that evening from the studio to find Leorio pacing their living room floor.

_Uh oh._

Leorio did not pace. That was _Kurapika’s_ thing.

“Uh, hey.. everything alright in here?” He sat his dance bag down by the staircase and wandered over to him, “We just replaced these floors, don’t wear them out.”

Leorio should have laughed at a joke that dumb, but he didn’t. Instead he turned to Kurapika and floundered for words for a moment.

“I.. Gon called me today.”

Kurapika’s face morphed in concern, “Is he alright?”

Leorio flopped down on the sofa and Kurapika sat in his lap. Leorio liked to hold onto him like he was some sort of ballet-dancing teddy bear when he was upset, and that was no different this time as the doctor's strong arms wrapped around him tight.

“Well… I don’t know. Ging showed up yesterday to see him.”

“Ging? _You mean your father?!”_ Kurapika’s eyes widened.

“Yea… I…” Leorio pulled his glasses from his nose and tossed them aside, before scrubbing his hand over his face, “He just showed up out of the blue.”

“How did Gon react?”

“He was _ecstatic._ He was so happy, Sunshine. They spent the whole day together…”

Kurapika swallowed around a lump in his throat.

“But?”

“Apparently little bro told him that he’d found me,” he looked up, his brow furrowing, “Gon asked me if he could give him my contact info.”

“Oh. _Oh…_ And what did you say?”

He sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair.

“I said sure.”

Something foreboding settled in the dancer’s stomach.

“Is that really a good idea?”

“What harm can it do? The worst that’ll happen is he won’t ever _use_ it. The best that’ll happen is I can finally get some damn answers.”

Kurapika reached up and cupped his cheek, “Alright. Okay, well I guess we’ll see where this goes.”

Leorio leaned into his palm and sighed.

“Yup.”

  
  


It had been two weeks since the conversation about Ging, and Leorio hadn’t heard anything. Kurapika could tell that with each passing day, Leorio lost a little bit of hope.

And then one Sunday afternoon, as they were getting ready to head to Pakunoda’s, there was a knock at the door.

Leorio and Kurapika looked at each other in confusion.

All of their friends normally just _barged in._

Kurapika walked to the door and hesitated before opening it.

On the other side was a shorter, more compact version of Leorio. He had Gon’s eyes and round jaw, but Leorio’s nose and wide mouth. He had a stubbly chin and upper lip, and his wild hair was clearly dyed black to cover his graying roots. He admittedly looked a bit awkward and uncomfortable.

_He looks like a used car salesman..._

The man gave Kurapika a once-over and he arched a brow, crossing his arms.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that you _aren’t_ Leorio.”

“No-“

“-I’m Leorio,” Kurapika looked up at his fiancé who had appeared at his shoulder. There was a youthful, yearning sort of sparkle in his eyes, “Are you _Ging?”_

The man gave a lazy sort of smirk, not unlike one that he had seen on Leorio’s face many a time.

“That would be me. Sorry, you guys goin’ somewhere?”

“ _No,_ not at all, come on in!”

Kurapika tried to shoot Leorio a questioning look but all the doctor did was step back and let his estranged father into their home.

Kurapika pursed his lips as Ging strode in like he owned the place. He looked around and gave a whistle, hands in his pockets.

“Nice place ya got. When Gon told me you were a _doctor_ I couldn’t really believe it, but I guess this is proof enough…”

Something about the way Ging said that nagged at Kurapika.

“Ah… well I mean…” Leorio rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “Sunshine and I split the mortgage, it’s not like I got this place on my _own.”_

“Sunshine?”

Leorio wrapped an arm around Kurapika’s shoulders and pulled him against his side, “Shit, where are my manners. Uh… _Ging…_ This is my fiancé, Kurapika. He’s the principal dancer for the York New Ballet Company.”

The amount of pride and emotion Leorio put behind his words made the dancer’s cheeks flush. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Huh, I see… I guess the thing for blondes runs in the family…”

Leorio arched a brow and Kurapika turned to cover a snort behind his hand.

Ging walked over to the wall of glass that overlooked the city.

“YNBC?” Ging looked back over his shoulder, “I have an old flame who works for the company. I think he’s a crew member. Don’t really care to remember what he _does_.”

Kurapika’s face pinched as he tried to piece together who he could have been talking about, but it wasn’t coming to him.

He shook the thought off and turn to look up at his fiancé, “Do you … want me to head over to Pakunoda’s without you?”

“If you don’t mind,” the little, pleased smile and twinkle in Leorio’s eyes made Kurapika return them.

“Alright,” he leaned up on his toes and kissed his cheek, “I’ll tell everyone you said hello.”

“Be safe,” Leorio took his hand and squeezed it before letting go.

“I will,” the dancer turned towards Ging, who was admiring the shelf of trophies and awards that Leorio had coaxed Kurapika’s mother into letting them have, “It was nice meeting you, Ging.”

“Oh. Uh, You too,” he nodded.

  
  
  


“Hey what is _up_ , your vibes are absolutely _rancid_ tonight,” Pairo plopped down next to Kurapika on Pakunoda’s balcony couch, where he sat alone.

“Oh. Sorry, I’ve just got this weird feeling I can’t shake.”

“Is it about Leorio’s dad showing up?”

Kurapika let out a sigh and nodded, staring out over the city lights.

“You should have seen his face, Pairo. He was _so excited._ I just… I don’t know, something about Ging really puts me off.”

Pairo slung an arm over Kurapika’s shoulders, “Don’t worry, Doc can handle himself.”

“I know he can. Doesn’t make me worry any less.”

“Valid.”

Suddenly the sound of Justin Timberlake’s voice broke into the conversation.

“Speak of the devil,” Pairo chuckled.

Kurapika swiped his thumb across the screen and put it up to his ear.

“Yes?”

_“Hey, Sunshine. Gotta ask you something.”_

“Hm.. Okay, what is it?”

_“Is it okay if Ging crashes with us for a few days? Just while he’s here in town.”_

Kurapika’s immediate thought was _No, hell no._

But he could hear the hope and pleading in his voice and _God_ did he want Leorio to be happy.

“Uh… sure that’s fine. We have a guest room for a reason, after all.”

_“Woohoo! Thanks babe! I’ll let you get back to the gang. Tell Pairo I said to lay off the Bailey’s it’s going to give him diabetes.”_

Pairo leaned in, scandalized, “Fuck off, _Doc.”_

Leorio laughed and the rich sound brought a smile to Kurapika’s face.

“See you later. I love you.”

_“I love you too.”_

Kurapika sighed as he pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at the dark screen.

“Come on, Pika, what’s the worst that could happen?”

_What indeed._

  
  


Kurapika didn’t see Ging much, thanks to his hectic dancer schedule. For the most part, Ging was alone in the apartment most of the day. On Leorio’s day off they would go out to eat or hang out around town.

When they went to bed at night, Kurapika would listen to Leorio talk about the things they did together and the stories Ging would tell him. Seeing Leorio _so happy_ made Kurapika happy. But he was still anxious.

Kurapika came home early from the studio one day after his private lesson with a student got cancelled. Ging was on the couch watching tv, slumped across the cushions like he had nothing better to do.

“Hello,” he said as he strode past to the kitchen. He sat his bag down on the counter and pulled his water bottle out to refill it from the brita pitcher in the fridge.

“Oh, hey sunshine.”

An unpleasant chill went down the dancer’s spine and he scrunched his nose.

“Don’t ever call me that again.”

Ging sat up and looked at him with a bored expression.

“Sorry _priss-pot,_ my kid only ever calls you that instead of your name so I’ve kinda forgotten what your real name _is.”_

_Oh, so he’s your kid now?_ Kurapika wanted to say, _Where have you been the last twenty-nine years?_

But instead all he said was “ _It’s Kurapika,”_ as he screwed the lid back on his bottle and gathered his things to head upstairs.

  
  


When he made it to the second-story landing, something immediately felt wrong.

The door to Kurapika and Leorio’s room was cracked open.

Kurapika had certain _quirks_ that Leorio found both endearing and annoying to certain extents. One of these, that Leorio had learned to live with, was that Kurapika couldn’t _stand_ to have doors left open. 

Kurapika _knew_ he had closed that door this morning when he and Leorio had left for work. But now it was open.

Kurapika turned back around and went down half of the staircase.

“Hey Ging?”

“Hm?” He turned to look over the back of the couch at him, “Sup?”

“Did Leorio come home at some point today?”

“Nope.”

“Hm. Alright, thanks.”

He turned back around and climbed the stairs again.

When he entered the room, nothing seemed amiss, so he chalked it up to _Ballet Brainrot_ as Leorio liked to call it.

  
  


A few days later and Kurapika realized that _a few days_ had turned into a week.

“Leorio…” Kurapika murmured in bed one night.

“Hm?” Leorio turned over and wrapped his arm around his middle to spoon him, “What’s up Sunshine?”

“When… is your father leaving?”

Leorio stiffened.

“Uh. Not sure actually, why?”

“Ah… No reason in particular. I just thought he would have left by now.”

“Mm… Yea, well I like having him around.”

Kurapika’s hand settled on Leorio’s where it sat on his stomach.

“I know. I’m glad you’re getting to know each other.”

“Oh I forgot to tell you,” Leorio’s voice got a rather sad note to it, “Gon lost his watch we gave him for his birthday. He’s super upset about it.”

Kurapika frowned, “What a shame. Not that I care about the money of course but it _was_ pretty expensive.”

“Yea and we went through all the trouble of getting it engraved and all… I’m kinda bummed about it.”

“Oh well,” Kurapika closed his eyes, “Things happen. I feel bad for him, he’s a responsible kid. He’s probably taking it really hard.”

“Yea…”

  
  


Kurapika laid there after Leorio had fallen asleep, and something just kept bothering him, but he couldn’t put words to it. It was like loose ends were trying to connect but the lines were too short.

  
  
  


“Hey.. Leorio…” Kurapika sat criss-cross on their bed with a notebook and his phone in his hand, peering at their joint bank account while he paid the bills.

“What’s up?” Leorio came out of the bathroom, toothbrush in hand.

“Did you randomly pull a thousand bucks out of the bank account the other day?”

“Oh, yea that was me,” he went back into the bathroom to spit toothpaste out of his mouth.

“Huh… okay… Was it for something specific?”

“Yea, I’m just letting Ging borrow it.”

Kurapika looked up at him and arched a brow, “You gave your father one thousand dollars?”

“ _Let him borrow…”_

He came back out of the en-suite and sat down next to Kurapika.

“What’s the big deal?”

“Oh. No it’s nothing…”

_It is not nothing. It is absolutely something and I don’t like it._

“You've been acting really fucking weird since my dad showed up. Is there something going on that I need to be aware of?"

Kurapika shook his head and sat his phone down.

"No, no there's nothing wrong. Just ignore me."

Leorio looked skeptical but put on a flirtatious grin.

"Sorry, it's physically impossible for me to ignore a pretty boy like you."

Kurapika rolled his eyes and gave him a push.

  
  
  


This had been the worst day that Kurapika had had in quite some time. 

He pulled a muscle first thing that morning.

He left his and Leorio’s lunches at home.

He had an _artistic altercation_ with Bisky.

Half of his class showed up late.

On the way home he couldn't get a taxi so he had to walk home at midnight in the dark. _In the rain._

By the time he trudged up to the bedroom, wet and angry, Leorio was already fast asleep in bed.

He sighed, stripping himself of his wet clothes and putting on some of Leorio’s sweatpants and a t-shirt. This helped calm him down just a bit, but Kurapika knew just the thing to really improve his mood.

Ever since Kurapika and Leorio had bought their wedding bands, the dancer would often take his out of the very safe very secret box hidden in the closet and just wear it for a little while.

This was especially true when Kurapika was all strung out and Leorio either wasn't around or wasn't conscious. He'd slip it on and admire it and think all kinds of embarrassingly sappy shit and BAM bad vibes gone. 

Kurapika loved his wedding ring. That's why he was always extremely careful when taking it off and on, and he _always_ put it back in the same place, right next to Leorio’s, in the very back of the walk in closet, right behind Leorio’s hot dog Halloween costume.

So when he went to take it from that very spot, and the box was empty of _both_ rings, he was understandably distressed.

He tore the closet apart looking for them, and then went around the bedroom to try and see if they could have ended up anywhere else.

Finally, completely distraught. He climbed onto the bed and shook the doctor awake.

" _Mmmph wha-_ what?! Who’s dying?!” Leorio shot up like a rocket.

“Did you move the rings without telling me?”

“What? What are you talking about?” Leorio yawned.

“Our _wedding rings,_ I can’t find them.”

Leorio furrowed his brows, “They should be right behind the hotdog suit.”

A chill went down Kurapika’s spine.

“Well they _aren’t.”_

The dancer’s hands began to shake. Leorio grabbed them and squeezed.

“Hey, it’s okay, we’ll find them. They couldn’t have just gotten up and left,” he looked at the clock on the nightstand, “But we will do that _tomorrow._ It’s late, come here.”

He laid back down and dragged Kurapika with him. The blonde buried his face in the doctor’s neck.

“Fine, okay…”

He closed his eyes but something in his head just kept nagging him.

He tried to piece together when the last time he had _physically_ held the rings was and that’s when he realized.

_I put my ring on literally the day Ging arrived, and not since…_

While Kurapika knew that Leorio’s dad had been in trouble with the law a few times, he didn’t want to think that he’d stoop so low as to steal from his own son.

He buried the thought for now, in hopes that he wouldn’t have to bring it up to Leorio.

  
  
  


Once a month Kurapika, Bisky, and Pariston had business lunch downtown to discuss things about the company and dress concerns. On this particular luncheon, he was incredibly distracted.

“Kurapika, did you hear anything I just said?” Huffed Bisky.

“Oh, sorry,” He shook his head.

“You know, you’ve been acting awfully odd lately,” Pariston propped his chin up on his hand, smirking, “Trouble in paradise?”

“Not exactly… Our wedding rings have gone missing. And I think Leorio’s dad might have taken them.”

Bisky gasped and covered her mouth. Pariston blinked.

“Well, that’s… _tre dramatique…”_ the stage manager sat back and sipped at his mojito.

“Why do you think it’s him?” Bisky picked up her phone and thumbed through twitter.

“It didn’t go missing until after he showed up,” Kurapika sighed, “And Ging has been in jail for theft before.

Pariston arched a brow, “Ging? Last name wouldn’t happen to be _Freecs_ would it?’

Kurapika tilted his head, “It is, why?”

“Pfft, well I can tell you one thing. He _absolutely_ stole those rings.”

“How do you know him?’

Pariston sighed and rolled his eyes.

“He and I used to have a _thing._ That _thing_ ended when I realized that he’d been stealing things from me.”

_Fuck._

“Oh _no,”_ Kurapika pinched the bridge of his nose. “How do I tell Leorio? He’s had such a good time bonding with Ging, this is going to kill him.”

“Well you certainly can’t just let the asshole have your rings,” Bisky scowled, swirling her drink with her straw.

“Maybe I can persuade him to give them back.”

“Good luck with _that,”_ Pariston shook his head, “He’s probably already sold them.”

Kurapika’s eye began to twitch.

  
  
  


Kurapika waited until he knew Leorio would be gone all day to confront Ging. He came home during his lunch instead of going to the clinic.

As predicted, Ging was on the couch, a couple of empty beers on the coffee table in front of him.

Kurapika dropped his bag at the stairs and stepped around the couch to block the man’s view of the tv.

“What the hell, twinkle toes?”

Kurapika scowled.

“We need to talk.”

Ging huffed and sat up, scratching the back of his neck.

“I’m listening.”

Kurapika crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

“Where are the rings Ging?”

“Don’t know what you’re yapping about,” he averted his gaze, crossing his arms to match Kurapika’s posture.

“Yeah, I’m sure you don’t,” Kurapika’s eyes flashed dangerously, “Either you can give them back and it will be water under the bridge, or you _don’t_ and I’ll tell Leorio what you did and it’ll ruin what little relationship you’ve started to build with one another.”

“Tch,” Ging rolled his eyes, “I didn’t do _shit._ And if I _had_ would he even believe you?"

The dancer’s eye twitched.

Kurapika glared at him until the light glinting off the man’s wrist caught his eye.

_Is that?_

“Huh… that’s an awfully nice watch you have there.”

Ging arched a brow and looked down at it, “Thanks.”

Kurapika reached out and grabbed Ging’s wrist and snatched the watch off. Ging made to grab for it but Kurapika brought a foot up and kicked him back down onto the couch.

“ _Oof,_ shit, blondie, you could have just _asked_ to see it,” Ging rubbed his abdomen, doubled over in pain.

Kurapika turned the watch over in his hands and sighed, nodding to himself. He held the watch up and read off the words engraved on it.

“ _To the best little brother that a big brother can ask for, Happy Birthday Gon.”_

Ging sighed, “Fine, whatever I took the watch. I don’t have your rings though.”

Kurapika leveled him with an unimpressed gaze.

“The only reason I am not kicking you out right now is because of Leorio,” he balled his hand into a fist, and tossed the watch back to Ging, “But I’m just going to wait for the guilt to catch up to you. If you’re even a third of the man your son is, you’ll do the right thing and come clean about it to him.”

He looked at the watch and then back up to Kurapika, “You’re not very bright, are you?”

Kurapika’s face heated with anger.

“You abandoned Leorio when he was a child. The least you could do is _not steal his shit,”_ Kurapika huffed, walking back around the couch to go towards the stairs.

“Oh spare me,“ Ging sighed in exasperation.

Kurapika stomped up the stairs, already regretting not just _kicking him out._

  
  


Over the next couple of days Kurapika noticed that Ging couldn’t even look Leorio in the eyes anymore.

_He_ **_does_ ** _feel guilty._

And then one morning, as Kurapika was getting ready to go to the studio Leorio called out his name. He quickly finished putting on his leggings and ran out to the landing. He walked across to the guest room and found Leorio there, staring at the unmade bed where Gon’s watch and their wedding bands lay. There was a note in his hand.

“Leorio?”

Kurapika came up beside him, grabbing his arm and looking up at him. His face was contorted in a mixture of hurt and confusion.

“He’s gone. He just fucking up and left… and he left the rings and watch… He fucking _stole_ the rings and the watch.”

He turned and sat down on the bed, taking his glasses off so he could put his face in his hands. Kurapika sat next to him and leaned against him.

“I’m so sorry…”

And Kurapika _was_ sorry. This wasn’t how he wanted things to go at all.

Leorio finally sat back up from his slunch and looked at the dancer.

“I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. The guy was bad news.”

“Doesn’t make it easier, though,” Kurapika took one of his hands in his own, “I know this hurts you.”

“I feel like an idiot.”

“Well don’t, because you aren’t one, despite what I tell you all the time. You know I only mean that in jest.”

“Brat.”

“Precisely.”

Leorio chuckled and shook his head.

"I hope I don't turn out being as shitty."

Kurapika pulled away from him and shook his head, "You are _nothing_ like him. He's a conman. You would take a bullet for a stranger. You two share a hairline and little else."

Leorio snorted and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

" _Thanks."_

They sat there like that for a few minutes in silence before Leorio spoke up once more.

“You know… I never got to ask him why. Why he gave us up and stuff. I didn’t even ask about my mom.”

Kurapika frowned, “I’m sorry you didn’t get those answers.”

Leorio turned and pulled the blonde into his lap, burying his face in his neck and holding on to him tight.

  
  


“Yea, well.. Maybe I’m better off without."

**Author's Note:**

> Gingfuckers don't @ me we are one in the same


End file.
